Thank you very much, colleagues.
Maybe the chair will offer a few parting words, particularly to our members who will not be back here.
As chair I've had a bit of a philosophy on this, which may be from my sporting background, in that I was heavily involved in sports at a number of different levels. One thing I did realize very quickly is that the best official is the one you never hear from or see. The game is over, and people say that was a good game and it hasn't been dominated by the officials in any particular manner. They just facilitated it.
I took that advice from a number of my past chairs and colleagues, people like James Rajotte and others whom I've come to admire and respect in Parliament. So as chair I was certainly determined not to have a strong presence, not to dominate, but simply to accommodate.
I could not have done that without your cooperation. I've had that and I'm very much appreciative of the attitude here. They say that attitude is everything, and in many cases the attitude has been tremendous on this committee. In the competitive nature of Parliament we always have our challenging moments. But certainly, I won't talk about individuals because if I talk about individuals, we'll be here for the next hour and a half.
But I will say in particular, Diane, what a mentor you have been, wow. If most people can go through politics and make the contribution to life and our country that you have made, and leave with a smile on their face after all the adversity and the challenges and the difficulties, that to me says a lot. So I think that says a lot not only about you, but also about our parliamentary system, our process, our democracy, that we're not having fist fights, we're not going out afterwards and being violent on the street, and ending up in ways that we can't talk about our differences.
And of course I would like to thank all of the members who are leaving. LaVar, Rick, my good buddy next door, my neighbour. We might even have a sarsaparilla sometime after we leave here.
Of course, I certainly have to mention all my colleagues on all sides of the House. Randall, Rosane, you've just been a pleasure to work with, and I appreciate your honesty and integrity. Your word is your word. When I grew up, one's word was one's bond. When we made a commitment one way or the other, we were able to follow through with that whether or not we agreed, and that to me made for the smooth, efficient, and effective operation of this committee. So I thank you very much.
Élaine, as a relative newcomer to the committee, at times you tried my patience but the reality is that is the nature of Parliament. I certainly never took it personally and I hope you haven't as well.
I think we're moving forward. I'm tremendously proud of the work of this committee. All the time I've been here—only 11-plus years—I've not been on a committee where the workload has been this heavy. It's not a question of work but that there was serious legislation to deal with and a lot of comprehensive work had to go on behind the scenes to prepare for what I consider to be the most important part of Parliament, which is the committee structure.
As Rick said, the charade sometimes at question period is almost embarrassing. But the real work at committee that goes on and the negotiations both publicly and behind the scenes that go on to be able to make Parliament work make me very proud. So to everybody leaving here today, I think you can all say in your own hearts, good job, well done.
Let me echo that our staff have been incredible, our analysts, our clerk, all the support staff here, even the interpreters who sometimes say they can't translate when we speak too fast. My apologies for when that happens. There are also all the support staff from all of our offices. We members present our case here, but we also know that behind us we have so many of our support staff who help us prepare. They give us information. They give us thoughtful direction that we sometimes follow and occasionally don't, but anyway that's all I'm going to say today.
The chair would like to offer sincere thanks to everyone who sat on this committee. May you have, as they say, a healthy, happy, and prosperous summer.If you're a golfer like me, hit the ball straight and don't three putt. If you're a gardener, get your hands dirty. It's wonderful. But most importantly, spend some time with family and friends.
God bless you all, thank you very much.
The meeting is adjourned.